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l. D. ALLEN.

COMPENSATING DRIVING MEGHAN|SM FOR MOTOR VEHICLES. APPLICATION man JULY3I. 19:1.

' 1,323,384. Patent-ed Dee. 2,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEER! APPUCATION FILED IULY31. I921.

Patented Dec. 2, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

nrvrrnn STATES PATENT onFroE.

JOHN D. ALLEN, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

COMPENSATING DRIVING- MECI-IAN'ISM FOR MOTOR-VEHICLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN D. ALLEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphla and State ofPennsylvania, have invented new anduseful Improvements in CompensatingDriving Mechanism for Motor-Vehicles, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to compensatlng driving mechanism for motorvehicles, by means of which the disadvantages of the differential gearin common use today are overcome and new and useful advantages areobtained.

The present mechanism is a modification of those disclosed and claimedin certaln prior applications of mine, which have now i become PatentsNo. 1,238,730, of Sept.. 4,

7 wheels, drive through the inner wheel on a 1917; No, 1,264,744,ofApril 30,1918, and 3 1,265,160, of May 7, 1918.

It differs from the forms of the inventions of said Patents Nos.1,238,730 and 1,265,160 by reason of the fact that pawls and ratchetsare used for the forward drive as well as for the backward drive,instead of ratchet clutches for the forward drive, and from that of saidPatent No. 1,264,744 in that internally toothed ratchet wheels are usedfor the drive in one direction, preferably the forward, whereby a morecompact and simpler construction is obtained. V

In this, as in all the earlier forms of my invention, the reverseconnection, which is a ratchet clutch in Patent No. 1,238,730 and pawlsand ratchets in Patents Nos. 1,264,744 and 1,265,160, is automaticallycontrolled, that is, thrown into and out of operative position, by theangular movement of the driving gear on the shaft, while in the pres entform, as well as in that of Patent No. 1,264,744, the forward drive, aswellas the backward drive, is through pawls'and ratchets, and theangular movement of the driving gear serves to disconnect thepawls forforward drive when those for reverse drive are in engagement and viceversa.

All the advantages set forth in said prior patents, 2'. 6., positivedrive of both curve, elimination of circular skidding, etc., areobtained in the present form of the invention, which will now bedescribed with reference to the accompanying two sheets of drawings, inwhich,

Figure 1 is a horizontal sectionthrough the mechanism as mounted in thefixed tubular axle of a motor vehicle, taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2,the ratchet wheels for reverse drive being shown in elevation,

Fig.2 is a cross-section taken on the line 2-2 ofFig. 1. i Fig. 3 is asimilar View to Fig. 1, but with the shaft in a different angularposition, the section being taken substantially on the line 33 ofFig. 4.i

Fig. 4 is a cross-section taken. on the line 4-4 of .Fig. 3.

Patented Dec. 2, 1919.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detail view of the :means by which the drivingpawls are disengaged. V

In these views, 1 represents the tubular axle of the vehicle, the centerof which is cut out for the reception of the housing 2, in which thedriving mechanism is mounted. 3 is the power shaft, 4 the driving pinionthereon, 5 the driving gear in mesh the're with, the hub 6 of whichcarries thekeys 9, which engage, with a limited amount of play, in thegrooves 10 in the hollow driving shaft, which is composed of. thetwoside members 11, 11, and the center member 12, all rigidly connectedtogether by the bolts 7 13. Ratchet wheels 15, 15, are mounted in teeth20, which are engaged, for forward drive in the present'instance, by thepawls 21, pivotally' mounted in sockets formed in the members 11 of thedriving shaft, said pawls being'normally pressed outwardly to engagesaid teeth by springs 23. 'Pins 24 project from the inside of said'pawlsin position to be engaged by cam pieces 25, secured within the hub 6 ofthe gear 5 by screws 26, see Fig. 5.

, pawls. To raise the latter out of engage- V The'ratchet wheels 15 forthe reverse' drive are engaged by pawls 28, pivotally ment, the tails 30are engaged by lugs 31 carried in the hub 6 of the gear 5.

The operation is as follows: When the motor is driving the vehicleforwardly, the keys 9, carried by the hub 6 of the driving gear, are atthe other ends of the grooves 10 in the main shaft 11, 12, 11, than thatshown in Fig. 2, and consequently thelugs 31 have raised the pawls 28for reverse drive out of mesh with the teeth of ratchet wheels 15, andhold them in that position, while the cam pieces 25 are in the positionindicated in Fig. i, permitting the springs 23 to cause the pawls 9.1 toengage the teeth 20 of the internal ratchet wheels or intermediate shaftmembers 9. As soon as the momentum'of the vehicle drives the shaft 11,12, 11, faster than the gear 5, the positions are reversed, the pawls:21 are disengaged, and the pawls 28 are engaged. if the clutch is leftin, the motor will now be driven as a compressor and therefore act as abrake. The last mentioned position of the pawls is of course also thatwhen the motor is driving the vehicle backwardly. It will be seen thatboth wheels are positively yet independently driven whichever way thevehicle is moving, and that the outer wheel on a curve can turn fasterthan the inner wheel, which therefore does the driving at that time,eliminating all danger of the vehicle side skidding or turning around.There can never be any dragging of a wheel on a curve, since theconnections for forward drive are automatically broken wheneverthose forreverse drive are made, and vice versa. Finally, the presentconstruction permits of a very compact arrangement of the parts, andenables it to be applied to existing vehicle axles without change.

Having thus described my what I claim is V 1. A reversing compensatingdriving mechanism for motor vehicles, comprising a hollow driving shaft,a gear capable of a limited turning movement thereon, two intermediateshaft members provided with means for connecting them to the wheelshafts and each comprising an internal and an external ratchet wheel,cooperating pawls carried by said driving shaft, springs to engage saidpawls, and means carried by said gear to disengage oneset of pawls whilepermitting the engagement of the other set.

2. A reversing compensating driving mechanism for motor vehicles,comprising a hollow driving shaft, 3, driving gear having a limitedturning movement thereon, two intermediate shaft members adapted to beconnected to the wheel shafts and carrying internal ratchet teeth, twoexternal ratchet wheels non-rotatably connected to said shaft members,pawls carried within invention said driving shaft to, engage saidratchet wheels, other pawls carried within said driving shaft to engagesaid internal ratchet teeth, springs tending to hold said pawls inengagement, and means carried by said gear to simultaneously disengageone set of pawlsand permit engagement of the other set.

3. A reversing compensating driving mechanism for motor vehicles,comprising a central driving shaft, a driving gear mounted thereon withslight amount of angular play, two lateral intermediate shaft membersadapted to be connected to the wheel shafts and each comprising anexternal ratchet wheel within the central shaft and an internal ratchetwheel surrounding the ends of said central shaft, a set of pawls carriedby the latter to engage each external ratchet wheel, another set ofpawls carried by said central shaft to engage each internal ratchetwheel, and means carried by said gear to disengage the pawls from onepair of ratchet wheels whenever the other pair of ratchet wheels isengaged by its pawls.

at. A reversing compensating driving mechanism for motor vehicles,comprising two internal ratchet wheels, adapted to be connected to thewheel shafts, two external ratchet wheels secured to said internalratchet wheels, a driving shaft surrounding said external ratchet wheelsand having its ends surrounded by said internal ratchet wheels, pawlscarried by said driving shaft in position to engage said externalratchet wheels, springs tending to force said pawls inwardly intoengagement,-pawls carried by said driving shaft in position to engagesaid internal ratchet wheels, springs tending to force said pawlsoutwardly into engagement, a driving gear mounted to have a slightangular movement on said driving shaft, and means carried by said gearand projecting into said driving shaft to disengage one of said sets ofpawls at a time.

5. A reversing compensating driving mechanism, comprising an outer andan inner driving element capable of a limited relative angular movement,two driven members each comprising a set of internal and a set ofexternal ratchet-teeth facing in opposite directions, cooperating withpawls carried by the inner driving element in position to engage saidteeth, springs tending to hold said pawls in engagement with said teeth,and means carried by the outer driving element to free either theinternal or the external teeth from their cooperating pawls according tothe relative angular position of said driving elements.

6. A reversing compensating driving mechanism, comprising a drivinggear, a shaft keyed therein but capable of a limited angular movementrelatively thereto, two

driven members having. provision for atried by said driving gear to holdone or the taehment t0 the Wheel shafts, internal and other set of pawlsout of engagement accordexternal ratchet teeth on said members, a ing tothe relative angular position of said 10 set of pawls for forward driveand another drlving gear and shaft. i 5 set of pawls for reverse drivecarried by In testimony whereof I have hereunto set said shaft, springsto hold said pawls in my hand.

engagement With said teeth, and means car- JOHN D. ALLEN.

